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Topical Tuesdays: Rowing Record Smashed – KS2 News Story and Reading and Writing Activity Sheet from The Week Junior

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Three Scottish brothers rowed across the Atlantic Ocean in just 35 days, smashing three world records in the process.

The MacLean brothers – Ewan, 27, Jamie, 26, and Lachlan, 21 – began their 3,000-mile journey on 12 December 2019 in La Gomera, one of the Canary Islands off the coast of Africa. Their epic adventure ended on 16 January 2020 in Antigua, an island in the Caribbean.

This resource includes the news story, and activity ideas related to it.

This PDF resource includes this article, as well as accompanying activity ideas:

  • Rowing across the Atlantic is undoubtedly an amazing achievement, but is it time to ask the simple question: what’s the point? Admirable though these young brothers are, it’s not like they even won that race. Shouldn’t that same strength, courage and determination have been put to better use? Or should we always celebrate such efforts? What do you think?
  • Imagine you are one of the brothers and write a diary entry for the day when you finally arrived at Antigua
  • Write a short poem about this news story based on the children’s rhyme Row, Row, Row Your Boat
  • Research the first to cross the Atlantic Ocean by as many different forms of transport as you can, such as rowing boat, iron ship, aeroplane, balloon and so on. Give the names of the main people involved and the date when each crossing was made

Find the entire series of Topical Tuesday resources to download here.

What is The Week Junior?

The Week Junior magazine looks at current affairs and helps children make sense of the world, provides context and clarity to complex issues, improves general knowledge and encourages discussion and debate.

To find out more about The Week Junior and to download its free resources, please go to schools.theweekjunior.co.uk.



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